Democratic Palestine : 13 (ص 33)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 13 (ص 33)
- المحتوى
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deportation orders rescinded. In addi-
tion to Palestinian and progressive
Israeli lawyers appealing their cases,
several prominent European and US
lawyers have protested. Some have vis-
ited Jerusalem to investigate the facts.
Their comments are revealing. As stated
to A/ Fajr, the Swiss lawyer Pierre Toffel
clearly denounced the whole conception
of deportation: «Even in the Nuremberg
court, deportation was considered a war
crime.» A Greek lawyer compared the
process against the four to the Greek
junta’s handling of arrests and trial, in
terms of the difficulties encountered by
lawyers, the press and others seeking to
know the facts and promote justice.
Mass protests have been organized
against the deportations, especially in
the detainees’ hometowns. In one of
these, 40 women marched in Al Bira in
early November. Their demonstration
was forcibly disrupted by the occupation
troops and 30 of them were arrested.
The arrest of women is becoming more
frequent under the reactivated iron fist
policy. In another recent incident, 16
women were arrested in Gaza, and sen-
tenced in a single court session, receiv-
ing sentences of three to nine months
imprisonment and fines ranging from
300,000 to 750,000 shekels ($240-600).
Economic iron fist
The iron fist is constantly being rein-
forced with other more ‘subtle’ mea-
sures aimed at undermining the Palesti-
nians economically in their own home-
land. For example, this year, the olive
crop was banned from export, and other
crops were destroyed. Exorbitant taxes
were imposed on merchants and far-
mers. Herds of sheep and other animals
were confiscated and their owners fined.
In the Gaza Strip, fishermen were forci-
bly prevented from catching fish.
Moreover, Palestinians under occu-
pation continue to pay the price of ‘solu-
tions’ proposed for the Israeli economic
crisis. Prices have been raised on a wide
range of basic consumer goods. Taxes
are being raised. Inflation decreases the
real value of wages. Rising unemploy-
ment hits the Palestinian Arab worker
first, especially those from the occupied
territories. It is estimated that 20% of the
Palestinian Arabs in the 1948 occupied
territories are unemployed. in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, 35% are
unemployed. The Arab municipalities in
the Galilee are still facing bankruptcy,
due to lack of state funding.
No to Normalizing Occupation
Below are the comments of three prominent progressive nationalist Palestinians in the occupied ter-
ritories, concerning the appointments in Nablus, and Israeli-Jordanian cooperation.
Bassam Shakaa
elected mayor of Nablus
Over the eighteen years of occupa-
tion, the Israeli authorities have gradu-
ally replaced the Jordanian laws by the
British Mandate’s Emergency Laws and:
by military decrees issued by the suc-
cessive military governments, irregard-
less of international law. Nevertheless,
the Israeli authorities kept some pro-Jor-
danian elements in some public fields
such as health and education, after mak-
ing sure that they would carry out Israeli
policies, implementing the laws of the
military and ‘civil’ administration. For
instance, the education department and
Curriculum is subject to control by the
Israeli education officer who supervises
the discipline of these elements in carry-
ing out Israeli policy. In short, since
1967, the occupation authorities have
planned and worked for implementing
‘civil’ administration. They carried on
with these policies which became espe-
cially aggressive in 1976, when the
municipal council elections took place,
resulting in a popular referendum which
showed our people's rejection of ‘civil’
administration.
The appointment of non-elected
figures to head the municipal councils,
and the fact that the appointees
accepted and were encouraged to do so
by some chambers of commerce, is a
submission and a retreat from the
nationalist line. It reinforces the occupa-
tion policy and strikes against the
nationalist forces and program. Those
who accepted these appointments, or
encouraged such acceptance, are pup-
pets used by some to offer free services .
to the occupation, ignoring the interests
of their people and cities. Meanwhile,
the friends of our people are taking a
supportive stand of the councils that
have refused to submit to the occupation
policies.
Those who are serving the occupa-
tion and its plans, especially this plan of
appointments, should realize that they
will not be able to diverge from the
policies planned for them by the occupa-
tion authorities. They should also realize
that what goes on with their help is an
Israeli game aiming to convert the strug-
gle to an inter-Palestinian one, instead
of a Palestinian-lsraeli struggle.
In the city of Nablus, for instance,
attempts were made to divert attention
from the Israeli plan to gain full control of
the municipal council’s water and elec-
tricity project. The appointment of an
Arab council is intended to divert atten-
tion from the real aims. As of now, they
have cancelled the Bir al Faraa project
and are supplying part of the city’s water
needs from the Israeli Mekerot Com-
pany. They are disconnecting the elec-
tricity lines of the northern and eastern
parts of Nablus from the council's elec-
tricity project and connecting them to the
Israeli district electric company. This
forced the workers and engineers of the >»
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